A MEDIUM FOR A MESSAGE

CAROL ANGRISANI

Prepaid calling card companies are offering supermarkets a variety of innovative marketing ideas that can help turn an ordinary plastic card into a miniature billboard.

"Calling cards are a new advertising medium," said David Redlich, marketing director at Phone Card Express, Hollywood, Fla. "They increase the propensity for customers to come into the store."

Calling cards help promote supermarkets and the services they provide, according to card companies. For instance, a retailer's or manufacturer's name can be emblazoned on the front and back. Also, a chain's name can be heard in an audio message played each time the card is used. Phone Card Express offers a customized, prepaid, rechargeable long-distance phone card. Retailers or manufacturers can create an advertising theme on the card and also on a 4-inch by 9-inch flier attached to the card.

Other companies are launching specialized promotional campaigns aimed at heightening interest in their product. For example, last month GTE Card Services, Irving, Texas, has launched NFL team prepaid phone cards tied into a national sweepstakes, which includes free vacations. Each card is sold for $10 and is good for $10 of phone time, according to Craig Ryason, director of marketing and sales. GTE currently does business with about 1,500 supermarket and convenience store accounts, according to Ryason.

Ryason said the booming prepaid card market has a strong future because it features a product that is easy to stock and merchandise.

"This is a new category that takes up little space for a high margin. If promoted properly, it can help drive traffic," Ryason said. Along with hundreds of phone card companies, the market is being influenced by several trade organizations. One such group is the Prepaid Communications Association, Princeton Junction, N.J. The 15-member PCA was formed one year ago to act as a clearinghouse for the prepaid calling card industry, helping the industry to regulate itself and prevent fraud, according to its chairman, Joe Clark, who is also president of GTS, a New York-based prepaid calling card company.

PCA's affiliate membership consists of card manufacturers, distributors and vendors. They include Bell Atlantic Network Services, Baltimore, and Western Union, N.J.

Clark said the prepaid calling card market is rapidly increasing due to several reasons: an increase in foreign travelers, immigrants looking to make inexpensive calls, the high percentage of people without bank accounts and the trend toward a cashless society.

Supermarkets are becoming an important part of the industry, Clark said, because they provide a quick, easy way of purchasing the product.

"Our members are certainly targeting supermarkets," Clark said. "When we take a look at point-of-sale, supermarkets represent tremendous opportunity." Also helping the category is interest in calling cards as collector's items. Nancy Beasley, product manager of Conquest, Dublin, Ohio, said consumers are beginning to collect cards just like baseball cards. "As the hobby becomes more widespread, we'd be able to leverage it with grocery chains," she said.

PCA will host its first annual conference and trade show, "Getting Down to Business," Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, 1995, at the Vista Hotel in New York. Show coverage will include seminars on how prepaid phone cards are being used as promotional tools, the PCA Seal of Approval, promoting cards at the point of sale and cards as collectibles.